A More Balanced Analysis to the LA Times / ABC News Accusations

It's not just that. Gas/brake pedal positions have not changed appreciably in the last 50 years, so it's a combination of old age and mass hysteria on Toyota.

 

There are at least 2 more.
5- The road speed falling below ~35MPH.
6- The road speed falling more than ~5MPH below the CC set speed.
And maybe the following:
7- The road speed rising more than ~5MPH above the set speed.
8- TC activation.
9- VSC activation.
10- OAT below ~35F
IMMHO 8, 9 and 10 should be REQUIRED.
I wonder...
In an airplane many of the functions that a pilot would not want to inadvertently or casually activate have "guards" over the control switches. The guard must be removed, flipped aside, in order to activate the function.
Couldn't something like that approach be used to prevent unintentional SUA events..?? In this case if I wish to go WOT, or even dramatically increase the throttle opening, I must first move the "guard" aside..
With a manual transmission the driver would almost always downshift before going WOT or even going to a higher acceleration rate. So why not have a simple PB, Push-Button, control that must be depressed just momentarily prior to applying a substantial level of additional pressure to the accelerator pedal.
With these new sequential shifting automatic transmissions a quick, momentary downshift signal could be used to "arm" the WOT capability.
Along those same lines, thoughts, why not prevent cruise control from accelerating beyond a sensible road speed, say 65-70MPH, without the driver having first released CC "accel" mode and then re-engage the "accel" mode.

 

Yeah, there will still be claims of SUA from people forgetting that their dynamic radar cruise control is on

 

Even if the blackbox record everything since 0 miles on ODO, people can still claim the cosmic ray caused electrical malfunction and computer data can not be trusted. This never ends.

 

On the other hand what if EVERY time you wanted to increase your acceleration rate, DRAMATICALLY increase your acceleration rate, you had to momentarily depress a PB first..?? that would put a complete STOP to claims of driver unintentionally/inadvertently inducing engine runaway conditions.

Doing so, first depressing the PB, would soon become a learned trait, instinctive reaction, just as applying the clutch first before shifting gears is with a manual transmission.
We would then be left with only manufacturer design flaws as a possible
explanation for SUA.

Personally I think the PB start/stop is a REALLY bad design idea. What would be wrong with having to insert a "credit card" type of device, say the current remote code enable device, into a slot to enable the PB start. Removing the "card", or pressing the PB, would stop the engine.

"..why not a simple KILL switch..."

Like:

Have electrical contacts inside the slot so that the code device's internal battery must be present for initially "powering" the engine/tranaxle controller computer, or at least the BTO "segment". Once the engine is started a PWM (10/90 duty-cycle) recharge path could be provided for the code device's internal battery. No battery to recharge, no engine POWER.

This would also solve the current problem of walking away from the car with the engine still running and the remote in your pocket/purse.

 

You really want to trigger claims of deaths/accidents from not being able to accelerate out of dangers fast enough or due to PB malfunction?

 

No, thank you. About the only time you need to accelerate that fast, you're lucky if you just get the acc pedal pushed down quick enough! The chances of SUA are so slim, if you're going to worry about it, you probably should find a padded cell instead of driving around.

 

Good idea. The vast majority of us here have spoken by reducing our foreign oil purchases in half or so. How 'bout you?

If any domestic auto company built a hybrid that challenged the Prius, I think you'd find a lot of of people willing to consider them.

 

+1

And I've had Mustangs all my life.

 

I would like a theory of mine based on something I experienced this morning at my dealer. An old lady came to the service department while I was waiting to get my Prius back complaining about the windows not working. It so happens she had turned on the window switch that stops the windows from working. The service attendant was complaining about the salespersons not teaching every gadget to customers. If I were a sales person I will never teach that as I would assume everyone knows that. WRONG ASSUMPTION.
My guess is that many older buyers are trading in very old cars for Toyotas. Cars without most of the gizmos we now take for granted and they do not know how they work. Cruise control anyone?
That is probably creating some of the problems they are complaining about, among many other possibilities.

 

Old people, short people everyone who owned the Audi 5000 said the same thing but Audi was vindicated by the government agencies who said 100% of the cases were operator error!!!!!!!!!!!

i DON'T REMEMBER BUT THERE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A FEW FRAUDULENT EVENTS TOO!!!

 

We were lucky. Our salesman spent 30 minutes going over things before we drove off. Probably since he felt he needed to earn his commission since we just walked in a said we wanted to get on the waiting list!

 

OMG ... my Prius will run away in only SIX more years!
Does that mean I have to start driving an Oldsmobile too?

 

Getting OT, but the 2011 3.7l V6 Mustang is pretty impressive - 305hp & 31mpg highway! And they still have Ecoboost to try which is supposedly good for another 10-20% fuel efficiency with the same power.

Now if Ford would just put some of that tech into their hybrid drivetrain and then stuff it into the Focus and/or Fiesta - we'd have a Prius fighter and hopefully a winner.

Even better, would be if they could get the Focus EV out sooner. From what I've seen, it looks like it's nearly ready. Sure looked good on the last Leno show. Nissan is leaping ahead of everyone with the Leaf launching in December. While Nissan may not be a domestic country at least the Leaf will be built in Tennessee (not sure when production for the Leaf will start there).

 

so what ... the economy crashed when gas hit $4/gallon nation wide (which YOU said would never happen) ... and the economy will crash when it hits $5 ... and $6 ... and $10. It's the nature of economies to crash. And don't lump FORD in with GM ... that's just wrong. Ford didn't take billions out of our crashed economey ... GM did. Lastly, Ford's quality has been going up ... WAY faster than GM's is.

How funny. It doesn't seem to boggle your mind when millions of GM's get recalled ... Just Toyota. Damage to Toyota? Thank your lucky stars. Had Toyota not finally started to have quality problems, GM might have gone under for good ... despite how many billions the U.S. threw at it. HA! GM Exec's showing up in Private Jets to beg Congress for money. I'll never forget it. Consider also this article:

Public Radio released a 30 minute MP3 that describes WHY it is that GM just doesn't get it ... except to say, "see? ... Toyota has quality problems too! See? See?" ... Rather than continue with the, "See?" GM ought to fix their decades old issues, as you well know:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/nummi

Toyota will be fine ... check out the MP3 ... then see if you can deny that GM's the next Titanic.

.

 

"..fast enough.."

When driving my '01 911/996 C4, or in the alternative my '93 Ford Ranger pickup (2.3L I4), I MUST depress the clutch pedal, shift into a lower gear, release the clutch pedal, and apply GAS, anytime I wish to dramatically accelerate.

In almost ANY modern day (post 2002) Toyota or Lexus vehicle I had BETTER be prepared to wait 1-2 seconds after going WOT before the engine finally recieves the GO signal.

 

Thanks for the laugh.